Venice, Italy

Swiss Air, who I've not flown for years, was my outbound carrier to Zurich from SFO. The seat in cattle class had respectable legroom considering what you get from others like Bri**** Airways. The flight was an hour late as the inbound craft had to land early and let off an ill passenger. I've never seen a full Airbus loaded so quickly and the crew advised the cabin attendants to "prepare for a fast taxi". While not a NASCAR start, it was an impressive show of Swiss efficiency. In the end, we arrived only twenty minutes late.

To execute the Zurich "pas de deux", Swiss Air needed to get my wife to Zurich in the same tight window before our outbound flight to Venice left. She was inbound from visiting family in England. The flight dance was nimbly executed and we both got on the Fokker (say it with a smile) to Venice.

Plane to bus to vaporetto down the Grand Canal -- definitely slowing the pace of life. It seems we have serendipity again -- ladies in formal gowns on the boat, gents dressed to the nines. It seems the Venice Film Festival is underway. We didn't see Gwyneth Paltrow but I expect she had a private boat. Straight to our hotel despite the many chances to get lost in the alleys of Venice.

We popped out for dinner at "Alle Zattere" on the Venice lagoon with a quarter moon. Tres romantic.... A little post-prandial strolling and night photgraphy (see pics) ensued. Of course, the evening was capped off with a gelato (an Italian tradition of ours) - fragole (strawberry) for me.

Still going strong at 11pm. The fitful sleep on the flight must have been worth something. Still there is the morrow, so off to slumberland and some melatonin dreams

Lazy start which is fine for the first jet lag day for me. After breakfast in the hotel, it was a stroll down the Zattere (the promenade along the Venetian lagoon) to figure out where our ferry to Croatia would depart from. It turned out not to be very far and suitable for rolling suitcases -- with a little lifting over a couple of small bridges.

It's pretty warm out today. The city is filled with the "umbrella people" -- large groups led by a lady under a pink parasol and herded from the rear by a second pink parasol. This is the life of a cruise ship passenger. We found some of them later in a huge group waiting to be loaded into gondolas, 6 at a time, poled up the small canal a few hundred feet and then let out. Gondola ride achieved, pictures taken, very romantic -- NOT.

Walked to Piazza San Marco. +1 no scaffolding on the church, -1 scaffolding all over the other end of the square. I guess repairs are a must for stuff this old if it is to keep on until it goes underwater eventually.

We learned in the morning that the "once a year" Venice Regatta was this very day. What good luck for us. We finally spotted a poster board with times for the regatta: 4 pm for the historic boats promenade. 5 pm for the kids race, 5:20 for the women, 5:40 for the six men gondolas and 6:00 for the two men gondolas. Still trying to guess where a good vantage point might be.

We found a good spot at the Campo de Salute -- at the entrance to the Grand Canal. There seemed to be almost a floating market of boats (fruits, vegetables, and more) all moored next to a much larger old saiing ship. When we arrived the folks on the ship and the floating market were singing a rousing rendition of "Volare". But then they segued to that ever popular "Proud Mary". You just can't go wrong with Creedence Clearwater Revival. It made me smile -- recollecting the story of an old friend who requested "Proud Mary" from a ukulele player in a Hawaiian club.

Soon after, the floating market boats peeled off to join the other craft for the start of the historic boat parade. Gilded boats, silver horses on boats, large multi-oared boats, a riot of colors and historic boats. See pics for samples. After that, there was a break before the gondola races so we wandered up to the finish line for the young lad's race. This was no leisurely gondola ride -- those guys were stoking it. There is a short video clip showing the finish sprint.

On the way up to the finish line we saw the mega-yacht "Inception". I wonder who was on that one? Apparently, you can rent it but we neglected to make a booking.

Today was our planned outing to Vicenza to see the Palladian villas. This required taking the vaporetto back to Santa Lucia train station and finding a train to Santa Vicenza. We had used the web site and knew there was a train at 10:50 which helped because, as usual, the trains are signed to the final destination (Milan in this case). This turned out to be a EuroStar Intercity Express which required reserved seats and so cost more than the local stopping train (about 2.5x as much).

Once the train got moving, it was clipping along at 100 mph. It was supposed to be a rainy day but all we got was a light intermittent spattering which one could nearly ignore. We walked into downtown Vicenza which seemed very quiet and followed the GPS unit to a geocache that is co-located with the Teatro Olimpico, Palladio's master work. Only then did we discover all the villas are shut on Monday -- giving us that "Duh, plan things better" feeling. As we later learned, to ease our "feeling stupid" syndrome, the next day was going to be a worker's strike on the railroads so we would have had a different problem had we waited until Tuesday. As a consequence, we had a nice stroll around Vicenza and saw some of Palladio's works from the outside.

In the main square we saw the "Rua" reconstruction. The Rua is a curiously gaudy construction standing perhaps 30 feet high and festooned with all manner of colorfully painted statuary and an odd spinning wheel in the center of the object with shells where people might site (like a mini-ferris wheel). It originated in 1264 and was paraded around at the Feast of Corpus Christi. As time went on it got taller and more ornate requiring larger and larger numbers of "bearers" to carry it. In the late 1800s, the number had grown to 82 people to carry it in the parade. By 1912, it could no longer fit under the power and telegraph wires. It was eventually destroyed in the bombings of the Second World War. Just recently, it was recreated though I think only a smaller version is carried around.

If your camera is up to it, Venice is turning out to be a good place for some night photo shooting. Last night, after dinner at Cantinone Storico, we needed to walk off the meal so we strolled down to the Punta della Salute and back. A number of interestingly lit subjects presented themselves.

A leisurely start and sure enough the transit strike is on. It wouldn't be Italy without transit strikes. It seems to have afflicted the boats plus the trains so we had to hoof it up to the Scuola Grande San Rocco to see the Tintoretto's. This place seems very much his life's work; 23 years to do them all -- massive in scale and number of paintings. They mostly seemed dark but being high overhead and not brightly lit to preserve the colors will do that. Use the provided mirrors for better viewing and to preserve your neck. I found the wooden carvings around the second floor gallery to be as impressive as the paintings but maybe only because they were a lot easier to study. They are by Francesco Pianta.